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Amazon.co.uk Review
Paresh is the glue of the story, son of two former non-violent revolutionaries who met on a demonstration in Ahmedabad. Detached from the urgency that fuelled his parents' convictions, he adopts a passive stance toward the events of his life, becomes an observer. His daughter, Para, in turn exposed to Paresh's haphazard experience, his lack of urgency, takes firm root in combat flying. Reaction and adaptation, circumstance and principle: through the characters' instalment in the present--1970-2000-2030--and through the evolution of one family, the future of India and Indians is skilfully conjured. In a matter of decades, India has become a militaristic power from its ascetic, caste-structured past and Para, only one generation removed from Thoreauvian pacifists, has become a war hero. The wonder of Joshi's narrative is not the fantastic leaps he takes but that he makes them so convincingly.
Ruchir Joshi is relaxed and sincere, often ironic and very funny. Those readers wary of the vigorous Indian literary invasion, those tired of Salman Rushdie's apocalyptic seriousness or still angry at Tagore for The Home and the World, will find here a strong clear voice. --Michael Kedda --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
‘The brand new experience after Rushdie: a megashow, Russian in size, Indian in soul.’ India Today
‘Written in the joyous tradition of Tristram Shandy, Joshi has Sterne’s gift for digressions [and] the master’s eye for his surroundings. This is surely a great moment for Indian literature. “The Last Jet-Engine Laugh” debates whether the story of a nation can be the story of a self.’ Tom Payne, Daily Telegraph
‘Exhilarating…Joshi’s narrative jump-cuts with a surreal invention reminiscent of the work of Vonnegut.’ The Times
‘Proof positive that it’s possible for Indian writers to be wickedly cynical, funny and bitter without the scathing edge blunting the Indianness or vice versa…Put simply, “The Last Jet-Engine Laugh” is a family saga across three generations. It’s also (as most really good books are) a love story. But before you yawn and reach for the remote saying, “Yaar, saala, it’s been done before,” it ain’t quite been done like this. Joshi is a most unsuitable boy, and if there were a glass palace about, he’d be the one throwing stones.’ Anita Roy, Biblio
‘Stylish, suggestive, musical…a great moment for Indian literature.’ Daily Telegraph
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Joshi shows us exactly what the novel can do in this break-neck, flash-cutting ride through the lives of three generations of an Indian family from 1970 to 2030. Paresh, the central character, is a photographer of some renown, a sad and disillusioned man who is found at the opening of the novel living in a future India which is only too chillingly believable. (Bombay and Karachi have both been taken out by terrorist nuclear strikes; there are riots over water; teams of female crack fighter pilots are involved in border skirmishes with an American-funded Pakistan.) His own life, along with the narratives of his parents and of his daughter Para (who is herself a fighter pilot), are given to us almost as a succession of photographic stills - at first this makes it a little difficult to keep track of what is going on, but ultimately the effect is exhilarating in the extreme. However, this is postmodernism with a heart - the relationship between Paresh and Para is particularly moving, and there are some extraordinarily intense scenes of emotional desolation (Paresh has lost his lover Sandhi in the Bombay nuclear strike, and despairs for the safe return of his daughter from her latest mission).
This is not an easy read, but unquestionably a moving and exhilarating one. As a demonstration of what astonishing speeds and high-G-force turns the contemporary novel is capable of, this book is unrivalled.
Ostensibly a family tale centred on Paresh Bhatt, a photographer, the novel moves from recalling his parents' lives on the cusp of Indian independence to that of his daughter, a top class fighter pilot, based on a space station in 2030. Along the way, there are copious little asides about the lives of his friends; his life in Paris; his father's friend's experience in a Siberian gulag; ponderings on the fate of an Indian indepence champion killed in the war; his first sexual experiences; various women in his life; his love of coffee; the rarity of real water etc.
There is no question but that this is a daring book: daringly original and innovative in style. There is also no question that I also found it almost unreadable. It hopped about from one character to another, from a first person narrative to a third person narrative, from one time or continent to another with such haste that I never really engaged in the story. What was to keep me reading if two paragraphs later Joshi was going to introduce yet another new scenario/time/location/character, as if he were starting new stories time and time again within sequential paragraphs? Equally because the action flit between the past (actual history), the future and a computer-simulated retelling of the past, Joshi constantly fluctuated between a scantly descriptive style for the past (where a knowledge level is assumed) and a highly over descriptive style for the future (where every detail has to be explained because it's new to us). The overall effect is disorienting to say the least and not especially rewarding; the book simply unravels. For the first time in ages, I was simply glad to be shot of this book when I'd finished it. A real disappointment.
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